Diligent Investors LLC Grows Position in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Diligent Investors LLC lifted its position in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 33.8% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 5,961 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,506 shares during the quarter. Diligent Investors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $1,057,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 411,570,922 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $64,299,725,000 after acquiring an additional 9,687,855 shares during the period. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC increased its stake in shares of Alphabet by 580,897.4% in the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 135,087,705 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $23,963,208,000 after purchasing an additional 135,064,454 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in Alphabet by 9.9% during the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 102,232,997 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $15,971,861,000 after purchasing an additional 9,243,959 shares in the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG grew its holdings in Alphabet by 5.4% in the first quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 21,345,784 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,334,852,000 after purchasing an additional 1,098,996 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of Alphabet by 2.2% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 20,380,073 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,183,979,000 after buying an additional 440,526 shares in the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $251.51 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $3.04 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.78, a P/E/G ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.00. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $142.66 and a twelve month high of $256.70. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $223.05 and its 200-day moving average price is $187.91. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.31 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.19. Alphabet had a net margin of 31.12% and a return on equity of 34.31%. The company had revenue of $96.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $93.67 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.89 EPS. Alphabet’s quarterly revenue was up 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 8th were given a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 8th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.95%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on GOOG shares. Barclays reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Alphabet from $215.00 to $275.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, September 22nd. Lake Street Capital reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Scotiabank upped their price target on shares of Alphabet from $200.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Finally, Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $210.00 price target (up from $185.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $235.33.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Alphabet news, Director Kavitark Ram Shriram sold 18,566 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.76, for a total transaction of $3,448,820.16. Following the transaction, the director owned 243,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,213,984. The trade was a 7.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider John Kent Walker sold 23,820 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.70, for a total value of $4,637,754.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 42,999 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,371,905.30. The trade was a 35.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 276,738 shares of company stock valued at $59,135,475. Insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Alphabet Profile

Alphabet Inc offers various products and platforms in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia-Pacific, Canada, and Latin America. It operates through Google Services, Google Cloud, and Other Bets segments. The Google Services segment provides products and services, including ads, Android, Chrome, devices, Gmail, Google Drive, Google Maps, Google Photos, Google Play, Search, and YouTube.